ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Stiebig, Ortiz backed; NISD bond supported

Updated
5:00 am CDT, Thursday, April 18, 2019

Participants make their way through Highland Park Elementary School during a tour of two Nederland ISD elementary schools Monday, Oct. 22. NISD Citizens Advisory Committee hosted the tours and meeting as part of their 5-month study of the facilities to investigate need for repairs. The group hopes to pass a bond to upgrade the facilities, after a similar effort failed to pass in 2009.
Photo taken Monday, October 22, 2018
Kim Brent/The Enterprise less

Participants make their way through Highland Park Elementary School during a tour of two Nederland ISD elementary schools Monday, Oct. 22. NISD Citizens Advisory Committee hosted the tours and meeting as part ... more

Photo: Kim Brent / Kim Brent / The Enterprise

Photo: Kim Brent / Kim Brent / The Enterprise

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Participants make their way through Highland Park Elementary School during a tour of two Nederland ISD elementary schools Monday, Oct. 22. NISD Citizens Advisory Committee hosted the tours and meeting as part of their 5-month study of the facilities to investigate need for repairs. The group hopes to pass a bond to upgrade the facilities, after a similar effort failed to pass in 2009.
Photo taken Monday, October 22, 2018
Kim Brent/The Enterprise less

Participants make their way through Highland Park Elementary School during a tour of two Nederland ISD elementary schools Monday, Oct. 22. NISD Citizens Advisory Committee hosted the tours and meeting as part ... more

Photo: Kim Brent / Kim Brent / The Enterprise

ENTERPRISE EDITORIAL: Stiebig, Ortiz backed; NISD bond supported

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Vidor voters will not have to worry about a lack of experience in deciding their next mayor; former mayor Ken Crawford is challenging current mayor Kimberly Stiebig. We have no doubt that Crawford could fill this post well, because he did before. But we lean toward Stiebig because of her attitude and her focus on issues that can make Vidor better.

Stiebig is a bit of a newcomer to the city council, having been appointed mayor when Robert Viator was elected Orange County commissioner. But she has a good background in Orange County disaster planning and the Vidor Planning and Zoning Commission. The last post was particularly valuable, as she and the council move to bring more land-use planning forward. Some cities without zoning want to stay that way, but more and more residents and businesses in Vidor seem to realize the benefits of setting aside certain parts of the city for certain kinds of growth.

Stiebig also stands out for her enthusiasm and attitude. She’s upbeat and positive, and those are traits that every city can use in a mayor, especially one like Vidor still working to improve its image. Stiebig isn’t complacent about Vidor’s future or content to just let things happen. She wants to make them happen, and voters should help her do that by electing her.

In Nederland, we like Jeff Ortiz for the same reason. He’s a young man, business owner and former council member running against veteran councilman Don Albanese. Albanese knows the city as well as anyone, but Ortiz offers voters a much more proactive approach to Nederland’s future. While the city is in pretty good shape, it’s also landlocked with few industries. Ortiz doesn’t want to just address issues as they come up; he wants to get ahead of them and do more to meet the needs of residents.

He’s talking about things like monitoring social media better to discover problems and quickly react to them instead of waiting to see if they come up a future meeting. He wants Nederland to develop a strategic plan (which every city should have) and then take active steps to fulfill it. He’s open to out-of-the-box thinking if it will help Nederland. Voters should give him a chance.

The Nederland ISD bond issue is attracting a lot of attention for its size ($156 million). But residents have voted down previous bond issues, and that cumulative effect made this one bigger to help the district catch up. The bulk of it ($151.1 million) would go to various improvements such as a new high school, a new elementary school learning area and middle school improvements. The second bond ($4.5 million) would cover stadium improvements. These are all real needs, often ones that should have been addressed years ago.

It’s a lot, but Nederland’s solidly middle-class tax base can handle it. If the bond issue passes, it will help students now. It will also encourage more people and businesses to move to Nederland, boosting the city for years to come. Voters should not pass up their chance to lock in a better school district, which invariably goes hand-in-hand with a better future.